Identifying Statistical Concepts Associated with High and Low Levels of Self-Efficacy to Teach Statistics in Middle Grades

Abstract

Previous mathematics and science education research indicates that knowledge and beliefs, including teaching efficacy, affect teachers' actions and effectiveness in a classroom. Our middle grades and high school Self-Efficacy to Teach Statistics (SETS) instruments, aligned with the statistical concepts in national and state guidelines such as the GAISE Pre-K-12 Report and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM), were developed for use in teacher education research. This study focuses on the middle grades SETS instrument, which measures pre-service teachers' self-efficacy to teach topics at GAISE levels A and B as well as K–8 CCSSM statistics topics. The items ask teachers to rate their self-efficacy to teach a particular concept on a Likert scale from 1 (“not confident at all”) to 6 (“completely confident”). Data were collected at four public institutions of higher education in the United States. Rasch modeling was used to order the items by difficulty of endorsement to gain knowledge regarding pre-service teacher perceptions of difficulty, with the goal of identifying priorities for increasing pre-service teachers' self-efficacy with statistical topics.

• SETS instrument
• GAISE
• Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM)
• Pre-service teachers
• Middle grades